German Published Patent Application No. 44 16 991 A1 concerns a method and a device for warning truck drivers of the risk (or danger) of rollover (or overturning) when cornering. For this purpose, before the vehicle enters into a turn, the type of vehicle and the condition information relevant for the risk of rollover, such as the weight of the vehicle and the vehicle speed, are determined. Depending on the center of gravity of the vehicle and the radius of the curve, the risk of rollover and the limit (or threshold) speed for that risk are determined. A signal is triggered indicating that the speed must be reduced if the instantaneous traveling speed could cause a rollover risk or the margin of the rollover risk is below a predetermined (or preselected) safety margin. There is a predetermined safety margin of the allowed traveling speed with respect to the traveling speed at the limit of the risk of rollover.
One disadvantage of the System of German Patent Published Patent Application No. 44 16 991 A1 is that when there is a risk of rollover, merely a signal warning the driver is generated instead of having measures implemented automatically or independently of the driver to reduce the speed of the vehicle and thus prevent the risk of rollover. Due to this procedure, there is no longer time to react to an imminent risk of rollover under some circumstances.
German Published Patent Application No. 32 22 149 A1 concerns a device for preventing side rollover of a vehicle. To do so, a static stability is determined as a function of the track and the height of the center of gravity. By multiplying by two different safety factors, two allowed limits are determined from this information. A dynamic instability is determined on the basis of the driving speed of the vehicle, the radius of the curve and the acceleration due to gravity. In two comparisons, this dynamic instability is compared in each case with one of the two allowed limits. If the dynamic instability is greater than the first allowed limit, the gear clutch is released. If the dynamic instability is greater than the second allowed limit, the vehicle's brakes are operated.
Releasing the gear clutch as the first measure to reduce the vehicle speed is a critical intervention or measure because when driving on a gradient, for example, this would not result in a reduction in speed but instead would necessarily increase speed. This risk would not exist with, for example, a straddle loader, the vehicle referred to in German Published Patent Application No. 32 22 149 A1, because such a straddle loader is usually operated on flat terrain.